Mercury retrieving device



March 17, 1959 E. L. BENNET MERCURY RETRIEVING DEVICE Filed Sept 19, 1955 KL/ZaWPI eJ S" United States Patent Ofice- Patented Mar. 17,1959

NIERCURY RETRIEVIN G DEVICE Eugene L. Bennet, St. Joseph, Mich., assignor to Laboratory Equipment Corporation, St. Joseph, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application September 19, 1955, Serial No. 535,219

3 Claims. (Cl. 294-.1)

The present invention relates to a mercury retrieving device.

= The principal object of the present invention is to provide a novel hand held device or implement to be used for retrieving spilled mercury.

An additional object is to provide a simple device for retrieving mercury from desk tops, floors, or other surfaces in an expeditious and thorough manner without'any requirement that the user be skilled.

. Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of my invention which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings, in which similar characters of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views,

Figure 1 is a top view of a mercury retrieving device embodying features of the present invention;

' Fig. 2 is a side view thereof with portions broken away so. as to reveal the underlying structure in longitudinal medial section; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fractional transverse sectional view which maybe considered as takensubstantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. l in .the direction indicated by the arrows.

' Around chemical and physical laboratories, as examples, there is frequently a repeated need for handling liquid metallic mercury for any of several purposes, and not infrequently some of the mercury'will be spilled or splashed onto table tops, in drawers," on; hard floors,'pr on carpets, for instance. It is good'practice to retrieve any mercury so spilled and put it back into a vessel so as to avoid the economic loss and also because the presence of uncontained mercury constitutes a hazard. The spilled mercury ordinarily consolidates into droplets of various sizes and is extremely difficult to pick up or scoop up, because of its high surface tension, its high density and because of its mobility.

The device of the present invention which greatly facilitates this operation is comparatively small and is adapted for one hand operation. As shown, the retrieving device is provided with a tray or scoop having a flat lower surface 12 adapted to be placed against a table top or the floor or the like. At each side, this tray has upstanding walls 14 which are joined at the back of the tray to an upstanding back wall 16. This tray is preferably formed of sheet stainless steel, or alike metal, which is corrosion resistant and which has no tendency to adhere to or amalgamate with metallic mercury. Preferably the leading edge 18 of this tray is beveled, as is best shown in Fig. 2, so that when the bottom surface of the tray is rested against a flat surface a chisel-like leading edge is presented.

The back wall 16 of the tray is secured to a tubular housing 20 which extends rearwardly for a matter of two inches or so, the remote end of this housing 20 being connected to a crosspiece 22 which extends transversely in a generally horizontal direction with its free ends curved 2 forwardly toward the tray 10 slightly as is best shown in Fig.1.

The tray end of the housing 20 is closed by a member such as a diaphragm 24 having a transverse slot 26 which loosely confines a longitudinally extending spring metal strip 28. A similar slot is formed at the opposite end of the housing through the metal of the crosspiece 22. The strip 28, therefore, is free to slide in an endwise direction, but is kept in longitudinal alignment. The strip 28 projects rearwardly beyond the crosspiece 22 for a distance of three inches or so, and is equipped at this end with a ring 30, the ring lying in a horizontal plane so that the operator can extend his thumb through the ring from top to bottom with two of the fingers of the same hand straddling the housing 20 and hooked over the cross-member 22, thereby permitting the ring 30 to be moved toward the crosspiece 22.

Preferably a coil compression spring 32 encloses the strip 28 with its ends bearing against the ring 30 and against the crosspiece 22, thereby normally urging the ring 30 away from the crosspiece 22. The end of the spring metal strip 28 opposite the ring 30 extends into the tray 10 and is formed into an eye 34 which is secured to the center of a U-shaped bail 36. This bail extends horizontally in both directions almost to the side plates 14 of the tray 10, the bail at these positions being bentstraight downwardly and then straight inwardly, so as to provide stub axles 38 which extend into bearing members v40 fitted internally to the ends of a coiled springlike member 42. The springlike member 42 and the integral bearing members 40 are therefore free to rotate about the stub axles 38 on atransverse axis. I

The springlike member 42- is cylindrical in external con} tour and has a diameter such that the bottom surface thereof lies against the inside surface of the bottom 12 of the tray 10 and is urged downwardly lightly thereagainst by the resiliency of the metal strip 28. Whenever the ring 30 is pushed forwardly toward the cross-member 22 far enough so that the coil or' roller 42 passes beyond the lip 18 of the tray 10, the roller 42 will follow the bevel edge 18 downwardly until it is brought into contactjwith the surface against which the bottom of the tray' l0 is rested and thereafter will r'oll against that surface with a light downward'pressure'. The final extended position of the roller is about as shown in phantom lines in Figs. 1 and 2. When thumb pressure upon the ring 30 is released, the spring 32 will urge the ring 30 away from the cross-member 22, thereby drawing the coil 42 with a rolling action back over the table surface for instance and into the tray 10 to a position against the back wall 16'as is shown in full lines.

The coil 42 should be formed of a material with which mercury amalgamates and for this purpose I prefer to use ordinary electrolytic copper wire coiled to the form shown. After the coil has been formed it is dipped into nitric acid or other bright dip solution so as to produce a chemically clean, highly reactive surface, and thereafter is immersed in mercury so as to form a coating of mercury which amalgamates with the copper of the wire.

The device is used by grasping the crosspiece with two fingers which straddle the housing 20 and with the thumb of the same hand inserted through the ring 30. The ring is then moved forwardly until the spring 32 is substantially collapsed. This extends the coiled roller 42 beyond the lip 18 of the tray 10 into the position shown in phantom lines in Fig. 2. The device is then moved about as is necessary so as to cause the roller 42 to roll through any droplets of spilled mercury that may be present upon the top of a table or upon the floor for instance until all of the mercury has been attached by capillary attraction to the roller 42, or until the coiled roller 42 has attached itself to substantially all of the mercury it will attract.

It will be appreciated that because the roller 42 is formed of coiled wire it presents a considerable surface area and therefore the amount of mercury attracted to this coil is considerable. After this has been accomplished, no attempt is made to lift themercury away from thesurface upon which it is reposing, since by so doing almost all .of the mercury would fall away because of its high specific mass; rather, the device is swung downwardly around the roller 42 as a pivot axis, until the tray is fiat against the surface upon which the mercury reposes. Thereafter the ring 30 is permitted to move backwardly under the influence of the spring 32 until the roller 42 is rolled into the tray 10 dragging the mercury along with it.

Thereafter the handle and ring 30 are lowered somewhat so as to lift the lip 18 of the tray 10 upwardly above the back edge of the tray bottom 12. The device is then lifted and tilted to one side so as to cause the mercury attached to the roller 42 to run into one of the rearward lower corners of the tray 10. With the bottom surface 10 and one of the side walls 14 forming a trough, the mercury can be poured back into a jug or other receptacle, the mercury being caused to run out of the tray at the juncture of one of the side walls 14 and the bottom 12 at the leading edge 18.

If not all of the mercury is retrieved by this operation, which can be performed in a few seconds, the operation is simply repeated until the task is accomplished.

It will be noted that because of the extensive area of the coil 42 a considerable quantity of mercury can be attached thereto and dragged into the tray 10, since it is not required that the mass of mercury be lifted appreciably. However, when the device is inclined so that one of the rearward corners of the tray is lower most, the gravitational attraction on the mercury will usually cause almost all of it other than a light coating, to become detached from the coil and to flow into the lower rearward tray corner. After the tray has been emptied, if any appreciable quantity of mercury still adheres to the coil 42, most of this can be removed by holding one of the rearward lower corners of the tray below the other and tapping the corner of the tray lightly on a table. This will shake loose most of the remaining droplets so that they can be poured from the tray.

Although there is a progressive amalgamation of the mercury with the copper of the coil 42, which eventually 4t makes the coil unsuitable for further use, it has been found that a single roller will work successfully for many months, and thereafter it is a simple and economical procedure to replace the coil 42 in the assembly.

From the above description of a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be apparent that modifications and substitutions may be made in the article shown and described, without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention and that therefore the scope of this invention is to be determined from the scope of the following claims.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A mercury retrieving device comprising a tray having an upstanding wall partly enclosing said tray thereby to provide an opening extending to the bottom of said tray, a roller providing a generally cylindrical peripheral surface which is adapted to roll in mercury to be retrieved, said roller when brought into contact with mercury in which said roller rolls amalgamates with the mercury, a supporting structure for said roller, means journaling said roller to said supporting structure for axial rotation relative thereto, means mounting said supporting structure to said tray for movement relative thereto, means connected to said supporting structure for rolling said roller into and out of said tray through said opening, and said supporting structure and mounting means biasing said generally cylindrical peripheral surface of said roller into contact with the surface of said tray as said roller is rolled into said tray.

2. The combination called for in claim 1 in which said roller is comprised of spirally Wound wire.

, 3. The combination called for in claim 1 in which resilient means is provided for normally retaining said roller within the confines of said tray, and in which manual means connected to said supporting structure is provided for overcoming said resilient means for rolling said roller out of said tray.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 320,742 Allen Jun 23. 1885 541,992 Cloud et a1. July 2, 1895 1,132,951 Maidens Mar. 23, 1915 1,173,512 Hill Feb. 29, 1916 1,349,582 Peterson Aug. 7, 1920 2,224,694 Price Dec. 10, 1940 

